Crock Pot Madras Lentils

My seven-year-old daughter is a pretty healthy eater. She’s crazy about vegetables and she likes lean protein. I mean, she loves candy and chips and all of the other garbage food, too,but if she gets a “treat” at the grocery store, her choice is usually a can of green beans. She doesn’t get her admirable eating habits from either of her parents, that’s for sure.

Her current obsession is these Tasty Bite Madras Lentils. They are super convenient, and she can cook them herself in the microwave safe pouch, which she would do for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let her. The problem is, they aren’t cheap. These Indian lentils cost between $3 and $4 a pouch at our local grocery store, and my girl demolishes an entire pouch herself.

My daughter’s current obsession.

While I’ll always have Tasty Bite Madras Lentils in my pantry for convenient meals, I wanted to try to recreate the recipe in my slow cooker to save a few bucks. I can freeze them in portions to pull out and serve them alone, over rice, mixed with macaroni and cheese (my nine-year-old son’s favorite), or mixed with rice in a tortilla. Madras Lentils can even be mixed with cream cheese or Velveeta for a quick, easy, and super unhealthy dip.

You guys! I’m so happy with how these turned out! This Crock Pot Madras Lentil recipe did not disappoint. It was easy to whip up, and it made a good amount of lentils. My girl happily ate three bowls of it the first night, and her brother did the same. Honestly, I’m shocked they didn’t get bellyaches from all those beans. We did such good work on the Crock Pot Madras Lentils, I didn’t get a chance to freeze any.

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT HEAVY CREAM in slow cooker and stir to combine.
Cover and cook on LOW 4 to 5 hours.
Stir in heavy cream.
Using an immersion blender (or a blender or food processor in batches), puree until to desired thickness.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve alone or over rice, and top with cheese and/or sour cream.

I buy these same lentils at Costco for about $1.50/pack (2 servings). Maybe the packs you buy are bigger. Tasty Bite seems to have changed the recipe lately and the result is watery and bland. Your recipe using green chilies really appeals to me, plus it make a lot of servings I can freeze. I’m going to try it. Thanks for sharing.

We tried Tasty Bite first at Costco, but don’t get there often, so we buy it at the local grocery store. I’m not surprised Costco has a better price point! Let me know if you try my version, and I’d love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for the recipe . Yes same here I was looking to recreate or copy tasty bite but unfortunately I was not satisfied with this particular recipe it taste a little to tomatoe sauce like and the spices were a bit more over whelming.
I quess for now I will stick to the slightly over priced costco lintel chile Thanks Chris

I made these for my family who also love the packaged ones and it was a hit! Thank you so much for this recipe! I was able to freeze half for another easy dinner.

Would you mind also including how many cups of dried lentils vs. 1/2 pound of dried lentils in the recipe for those of us who don’t have a food scale or are unable to purchase and weigh from a bulk bin? Just a suggestion 🙂

I just tried this recipe and it turned out really watery. I ended up taking a third of it and simmering it on the stove to reduce the liquid. I think this recipe would be better made in a saucepan over the stove, or cut the liquid in half.

Mine also tuned out a bit more “liquidy” than I would have liked, and that was after 8+ hours of low crock pot cooking. I added some garam masala powder, which I think made it taste EXACTLY like the Tasty Bite version. Garam masala is an Indian spice mix which you can make yourself or buy already made in most grocery store spice aisles. Thanks for the recipe!

Very good, though also too watery, as others have noted. I’ll reduce the liquid from 6 cups to 5 next time and see how that goes. I also added some other spices: 1.5 tsp paprika, 1 tsp coriander, 1/8 tsp ginger.